
The Federal Government has approved the establishment of nine new private universities across the country.
Dr. Tunji Alausa, the Minister of Education, announced this decision on Wednesday during a briefing with State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting, which was presided over by President Bola Tinubu in Abuja.
The newly approved institutions are as follows:
– Tazkiyah University, Kaduna State
– Leadership University, Abuja
– Jimoh Babalola University, Kwara State
– Bridget University, Mbaise, Imo State
– Greenland University, Jigawa State
– JEFAP University, Niger State
– Azione Verde University, Imo State
– Unique Open University, Lagos State
– American Open University, Ogun State
Alausa mentioned that the Tinubu administration inherited a total of 551 pending requests for the establishment of tertiary institutions, which were subjected to stricter approval guidelines. This process reduced the number of active applications to 79, out of which nine were approved on Wednesday.
He also explained that many of the newly approved universities had been waiting for accreditation for over six years, with their promoters already having constructed campuses and invested billions of naira.
“Due to inefficiencies within the National Universities Commission (NUC), approvals were delayed. We have since introduced reforms to streamline these processes, and today’s approvals are a result of clearing this backlog,” Alausa stated.